EPA eyes wildlife's lab practices; concern centers on whether CWD
prions can get into the water

September 6, 2002 Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO) by Todd Hartman

The EPA is scrutinizing laboratory practices at the Colorado
Division of Wildlife, worried that the infectious agents believed to
cause chronic wasting disease could wash into public sewers and
underground septic tanks.

Water regulators with the Environmental Protection Agency could
require wildlife officials to alter plumbing at division laboratories
in Fort Collins, Craig and elsewhere to ensure that the persistent
protein - called a prion - doesn't accumulate in water supplies.

"The concern is that there's so little known about the prions,
that we think we ought to be taking a relatively protective,
conservative approach to things," said Steve Tuber, director of water
programs for EPA's regional office in Denver. "We're just being
careful." For the moment, the agencies are exchanging proposals on
how to handle the matter. At the root of the problem: How to ensure
tiny bits of tissue, or other possibly contaminated fluids or animal
hair, don't make it through floor drains when laboratory areas are
washed down.

The EPA hasn't been a visible player in the CWD problem - a fatal
brain malady in deer and elk - until now.

The federal agency's timing could make things tough for the
Division of Wildlife, as it gears up for a fall hunting season in
which state workers are prepared to conduct up to 50,000 analyses on
deer and elk heads to test for the presence of the disease.

"At this point, we're still in operation (for testing). We intend
to be - we hope to be - all the way through hunting season," said
John Smeltzer, a division supervisor. "If we need to modify our
processes, we will do so."

With archery season under way for nearly a week and some rifle
hunting allowed on private lands, about 100 heads - most of them elk
- have been submitted to the state for CWD testing, said Division of
Wildlife spokesman Todd Malmsbury.

Neither agency could say what the ultimate solution will be. The
EPA has recommended a number of possibilities, including the use of
absorbent paper on lab benches to soak up blood or other fluids. The
division has pledged to come back with some ideas of its own, Tuber
said.

Prions pose the same problem as some toxic and radioactive
contaminants: They appear to have a long life and survive in the
environment for at least a few years. Researchers have found that
animals placed in long-empty pens once home to infected animals can
acquire the disease, presumably because the prions remain viable in
the soil.

In addition, prions are hard to destroy, resistant to extreme
heat - up to 1,100 degrees - sunlight and many disinfectants.
Agencies responsible for containing the spread of CWD have often
incinerated deer and elk carcasses at very high temperature to ensure
destruction of the prion.

There are no known cases of a human developing CWD. Nevertheless,
scientists urge people to avoid eating meat from infected animals. A
related ailment, mad cow disease, which strikes cattle, has made the
leap into humans, killing more than 120 people overseas.

Tuber emphasized that the Division of Wildlife isn't disposing
contaminated animal tissue "in any intentional way," but that the EPA
is concerned with residue left behind. "They are taking precautions;
we've asked them to take additional ones," Tuber said.

Of most immediate concern is a special EPA permit needed for a
Fort Collins laboratory where parts of the brain, tonsils and lymph
nodes are removed from deer and elk heads. When the lab is washed
down, the rinse water flows to an underground septic tank. Under the
law, the lab is considered an industrial discharger and is operating
under temporary permission. But the EPA wants more steps taken before
issuing a permit.

It will be several more weeks, after more detailed talks between
EPA and Division of Wildlife scientists, before the agency will
decide whether to grant a permit, Tuber said.

He said the EPA wanted to avoid interfering in the division's
testing program.

"We want to give them an opportunity to keep that protection in
place, and at the same time be protective of groundwater," Tuber said.

Also of concern is the division's laboratory in Craig, where
rinse water is sent to a public wastewater treatment plant. The
solution there could involve pre-treatment of some kind before the
discharge can be released into the sewers, Tuber said.

Smeltzer said the division will work with the EPA, but believes
it takes significant precautions already. He notes that very small
amounts of tissue are handled in the labs - the brain samples
extracted are about the size of two grains of rice, he said - and
that workers frequently spray down work areas with a disinfectant
known to be effective in neutralizing prions.

Tuber said the EPA also needs to look at processing plants, where
deer and elk are carcasses are prepared. "It's something that we're
just starting to get to," he said.

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